Corbett, coal interests rally before EPA hearings

Retired coal miner Stanley Sturgill of Harlan County, Kentucky, testifies that coal fired power plants are a danger to public health, on the first of two days of public hearings held by the Environmental Protection Agency on President Barack Obama's plan to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 30 percent by 2030, in Denver, Tuesday, July 29, 2014. In hearings, hundreds of people across the country are telling the EPA its new rules for power-plant pollution either go too far or not far enough. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

Wednesday’s rally at Highmark Stadium, a minor-league soccer venue, comes a day before the EPA holds two days of public hearings on the proposed regulations in downtown Pittsburgh.

Business and labor officials contend the regulations will drive up electricity prices and cost jobs in the coal and energy industries, and may not wind up cutting carbon dioxide and other emissions enough to make it worth those costs. Some environmentalists want even stricter rules and argue that the benefits to the environment — and a boom they predict in jobs relating to more renewable, efficient energy sources — make the regulations a no-brainer.

The rally Corbett will address was organized by the Pennsylvania Coal Alliance, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, and the National Miners Association.

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According to the U.S. Department of Energy, Pennsylvania was the fourth-largest coal-producing state in the country last year, accounting for 6 percent of all U.S. coal.

That’s one reason advocates for both sides have descended on Pittsburgh where they hope to sell their message before hundreds of people testify. Similar hearings in Atlanta, Denver and Washington, where public comment hearings were held Tuesday and Wednesday, have drawn similar attention from advocates on both sides.

The EPA expects 1,600 people to speak in the four cities and has already received more than 300,000 written comments, which will be accepted until Oct. 16. The Pittsburgh hearings will run from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday.

The United Mine Workers of America and other unions opposed to the regulations said they expect 5,000 people to march in Pittsburgh when the hearings open Thursday morning. Environmental and other like-minded groups, including Physicians for Social Responsibility, have scheduled a counter rally to be attended by Mayor Bill Peduto.

Additionally, the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council and other groups held a national telephone news conference Monday to support the regulations. Those groups also contend a poll by the environmental group, Green For All, shows minority groups — who some say will bear the brunt if electricity costs rise — nonetheless view climate change as a threat and favor stricter pollution controls.